But the film also does several other very important things.
It educates the audience about the J Street methods. A very cursory explanation, and it really is done well in the movie, is that J Street has a single product to sell. Its product is what it calls the “Two State Solution.” And because the word “solution” is part of it, you have the added benefit of having “the answer” and the answer, as far as the J Street media campaign, is “peace.” What could be easier to sell? Especially to a war-weary people?
J Street sells that product just as any good marketer would sell any product. First, you give it the veneer of desirability, and then you promote everyone connected to that product as consequently being desirable. And anyone who is peddling something else, even reality, is just wrong. Because, you see, their product is peace, so if you criticize J Street, you must be anti-peace.
It sounds so simplistic. The marketing is close to brilliant.
The “J Street Challenge” does, as Goldwasser promised, bring together a number of extremely articulate, knowledgeable scholars, activists and journalists, who help unwind the magical marketing mystery of J Street.
The other gift the movie delivers is a helpful understanding of how it is that J Street’s message and methods have found such a willing audience. The scholars include Ruth Wisse, of Harvard University, and Richard Landes, an historian at Boston University, Rabbi Daniel Gordis – a brilliant writer – and several others who help to explain why American Jews are so susceptible to the dulcet tones of the J Street message.
Watch Landes, in particular, explain the propensity towards moral narcissism, the addict’s need to feel as though he is morally good, which is far greater than the need to actually do something that is morally good, or to deal with hard facts rather than squishy ideology.
As several in the movie point out, including Noah Pollak, Landes, Wisse and Caroline Glick, if American Jews are told that what is preventing peace is their own people, then they can fix it. This is like the child of abusive parents who blames himself for the problem. In this way, the child can control the abuse.
Jews desperately want to believe that they cause the attacks on the Jewish State – because then, to get real peace, all they have to do is pressure their own government into making sure the Israeli government does the right thing.
“The J Street Challenge” was shown for the first time – in a sold out show – in Miami on Monday evening, Feb. 17. Afterwards, Dr. Charles Jacobs, a consultant on the film and the head of Americans for Peace and Tolerance, spoke with The Jewish Press.
“I was happy to see so much interest and also the enthusiastic response. The discussion afterward was exactly what we hoped for, vital, public discussions on fundamental, controversial topics which need a public airing. As we saw on Monday, there is a desperate need for this opportunity.”
The movie is a must see. Every Jewish community, every shul, every JCC, Federation, JCC and college campus should show it.
J Street responded to the film in a terse statement on its website. J Street claimed the film contains “numerous inaccuracies, distortions and outright lies.” But none are identified or refuted, not one.
They don’t want to waste their energy responding? Fair enough. But the J Street statement also claims that they “are also eager to advocate for our positions in public forums. We have engaged in many debates in the past, including with some of our critics who were interviewed in this film, and stand ready to do so again in the future.”